Exactly. Or Spanish. Or French. Or Russian. How many language fads have there been in the last century, based on the perceived importance of the country/countries?

Unless you plan to relocate to China or Asia, I think most people considering language study would be better off learning a programming language. I am a proficient Mandarin speaker, and while it helped me greatly when I lived in Taiwan, it has done nothing for my career in the United States, except for a single nibble from a software company that needed a bilingual project manager (they ended up hiring a native speaker).